All About Parkside

Parkside History: "A Streetcar suburb"

The Parkside neighborhood is a century-old community of Camden, NJ, bordering the towns of Collingswood and Pennsauken.

It was originally developed as an alternative to crowded city living in Philadelphia, where it was advertised by developer John M. Kelley as the first "streetcar suburb." The neighborhood was originally a Jewish community, with a vibrant social life centering around the synagogues as well as the Haddon Avenue business district. The community's namesake is the 70-acre Farnham Park, currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar redevelopment effort being spearheaded by the Trust for Public Land.

Like many urban areas, Parkside transformed to a minority neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s, and experienced some of the same racial turmoil that plagued cities across the country. Beginning in the 1970s, however, a core group of residents banded together to share their pride in the neighborhood and work together to maintain a solid base of residents who take pride in their neighborhood, fighting the forces of urban blight that were creeping into Camden. This group of neighbors was the precursor to Parkside Business & Community in Partnership, incorporated in 1993, and working since then to transform Parkside once again into a thriving and successful urban residential neighborhood.